at Canterbury IN order to the bettering the State of Religion in the Nation the Arch-bishop's Endeavours both with the King and the Clergy were not wanting from time to time And something soon after fell out which afforded him a fair opportunity which was this The King resolving to vindicate his own Right of Supremacy against the Encroachments of Popes in his Dominions especially now the Parliament had restored it to him being at Winchester sent for his Bishops thither about Michaelmas ordering them to go down to their respective Diocesses and there in their own Persons to preach up the Regal Authority and to explain to the People the Reason of excluding the Pope from all Jurisdiction in these Realms Our Arch-bishop according to this Command speeds down into his Diocess to promote this Service for the King and the Church too He went not into the neerer parts of Kent about Otford and Knol where his most frequent Residence used to be because his Influence had a good effect for the Instruction of the People thereabouts in this as well as in other Points of sound Religion But he repaired into the East parts of his Diocess where he preached up and down upon the two Articles of the Pope's Usurpations and the King's Supremacy But the People of Canterbury being less perswaded of these Points than all his Diocess besides there in his Cathedral Church he preached two Sermons wherein he insisted upon three things I. That the Bishop of Rome was not God's Vicar upon Earth as he was taken Here he declared by what Crafts the Bishop of Rome had obtained his usurped Authority II. That the Holiness that See so much boasted of and by which Name Popes affected to be stiled was but a Holiness in Name and that there was no such Holiness at Rome And here he launched out into the Vices and profligate kind of living there III. He inveighed against the Bishop of Rome's Laws Which were miscalled Divinae Leges and Sacri Canones He said that those of his Laws which were good the King had commanded to be observed And so they were to be kept out of obedience to him And here he descended to speak of the Ceremonies of the Church that they ought not to be rejected nor yet to be observed with an Opinion that of themselves they make Men holy or remit their Sins seeing our Sins are remitted by the Death of our Saviour Christ. But that they were observed for a common Commodity and for good Order and Quietness as the Common Laws of the Kingdom were And for this Cause Ceremonies were instituted in the Church and for a remembrance of many good things as the King's Laws dispose Men unto Justice and unto Peace And therefore he made it a general Rule that Ceremonies were to be observed as the Laws of the Land were These Sermons of the Arch-bishop it seems as they were new Doctrines to them so they were received by them at first with much gladness But the Friars did not at all like these Discourses They thought such Doctrines laid open the Truth too much and might prove prejudicial unto their Gains And therefore by a Combination among themselves they thought it convenient that the Arch-bishop's Sermons should be by some of their Party confuted and in the same place where he preached them So soon after came up the Prior of the black Friars in Canterbury levelling his Discourse against the three things that the Arch-bishop had preached He asserted the Church of Christ never erred that he would not slander the Bishops of Rome and that the Laws of the Church were equal with the Laws of God This angry Prior also told the Arch-bishop to his Face in a good Audience concerning what he had preached of the Bishop of Rome's Vices that he knew no Vices by none of the Bishops of Rome And whereas the Arch-bishop had said in his Sermon to the People that he had prayed many Years that we might be separated from that See and that he might see the Power of Rome destroyed because it wrought so many things contrary to the Honour of God and the Wealth of the Realm and because he saw no hopes of amendment and that he thanked God he had now seen it in this Realm for this the Prior cried out against him that he preached uncharitably The Arch-bishop not suffering his Authority to be thus affronted nor the King's Service to be thus hindred convented the Prior before him before Christmass At his first examination he denied that he preached against the Arch-bishop and confessed that his Grace had not preached any thing amiss But sometime afterward being got free from the mild Arch-bishop and being secretly upheld by some Persons in the Combination he then said he had preached amiss in many things and that he purposely preached against him This created the Arch-bishop abundance of Slander in those parts The Business came to the King's Ears who seemed to require the Arch-bishop to censure him in his own Court But upon occasion of this the Arch-bishop wrote his whole Cause in a Letter to the King dated from his House at Ford 1535. Declaring what he had preached and what the other had preached in contradiction to him And withal entreated his Majesty that he the Arch-bishop might not have the judging of him lest he might seem partial but that he would commit the hearing unto the Lord Privy Seal who was Crumwel or else to assign unto him other Persons whom his Majesty pleased that the Cause might be jointly heard together He appealed to the King and his Council If the Prior did not defend the Bishop of Rome though he had said nothing else than that the Church never erred For then they were no Errors as he inferred that were taught of the Pope's Power and that he was Christ's Vicar in Earth and by God's Law Head of all the World Spiritual and Temporal and that all People must believe that de necessitate Salutis and that whosoever did any thing against the See of Rome is an Heretick But if these be no Errors then your Grace's Laws said he be Erroneous that pronounce the Bishop of Rome to be of no more Power than other Bishops and them to be Traitors that defend the contrary In fine in the stomach of an Arch-bishop and finding it necessary to put a stop to the ill designs of these Friars he concluded That if that Man who had so highly offended the King and openly preached against him being his Ordinary and Metropolitan of the Province and that in such Matters as concerned the Authority Mis-living and Laws of the Bishop of Rome and that also within his own Church if he were not looked upon he left it to the King's Prudence to expend what Example it might prove unto others with like colour to maintain the Bishop of Rome's Authority and of what estimation he the Arch-bishop should be reputed hereafter and what Credence would be
Visitationem Archiep. Cant. FIrst That the Archbp. of Canterbury in al his Monitions and Writings sent to the Bp. Abbots Prior and Archdeacon of London concerning this his Visitation called himself Apostolicae Sedis Legatum and that therefore the Bp. of London with the Chapter did not only advertise the Archbp. therof by their Letters before the day of Visitation But also the same day of the Commencement thâ—reof in the Chapter house of Powles the said Bp. and Chapter before the delivery of the Certificate to the ABp made there openly a â—rotestation reading it in writing signifying that they would neither accept him as such a Legate or admit or obey his Visitation jurisdiction or any thing that he would attempt by the pretext or color of that name of Legate or otherwise against the Crown of our Soveraign his Regality Statutes or customes of his realm And required the said Archbp. to command his Register there present to enact the said Protestation Which he refused utterly to do shewing himself not willing to admit the said Protestation Item That the Archbp. in his said Monition to the Bp. did expresly intimate and signify to him that he would in his Visitation suspend al the jurisdiction of the Bp. the Dean and Archdeacons from the beginning thereof to the ending In such wise that the Bp. nor his Officers Dean nor Archdeacon should or might at that time which he would not determine how long it should endure use no jurisdiction whatsoever causes or necessities should chance of correction institutions of benefices Confirmations of Election Consecrations of Churches Celebrations of Orders or Probation of Testaments with many other things mo appertaining ad forum contentiosum But al and every of these the Archbp. and his Officers would have and suffer none other to use and exercise the same unto the end of his Visitation Which he hath now continued until the first day of December pretending that then he may likewise continue it other six months and so forth without end at his plesure during his life from time to time So that by this means he only and none other should be Bp. but Titularis in all his Province during his life but at his plesure Which were an inconvenience intolerable and such as never was read nor heard of that ever any Metropolitan private Legate or Bp. of Rome in the most Tyranny had usurped the semblable Item That al men learned and Books of the Canon Law doth aggree that no Metropolitan or Primate may thus by any law written suspend al the jurisdiction of the Bishops for the time of their Visitations or exercise the premises during the same Iure Metropolitico And this the Councel of the Archbishop doth not deny nor cannot Item Where the said AB doth pretend that his Predecessors times past hath put in use and exercise al the premises And so though the Common law doth not favor him yet he may lean to prescription First it is to be considered and remembred that the suspension of al jurisdiction of al the Bishops in maner aforesaid seemeth to be against holy scripture and the authority given unto them by God and as it was said before that Suspension were a thing pernitious not read nor heard of to have bee attempted by the most tyranny of al the Bishops of R. without the great offence of the Bishop And as for the rest considering that none of his Predecessors this hundred years did visit thus his Province and therfore no man Living can know this by experience it had been necessary for the Archbp. to have shewed books for the proof of these his sayings and pretences Which he and his Officers being therunto desired as wel before the Visitation as sithence ever did refuse and deferr to do Item It is to be remembred that in case it shal appear in any Book of the AB that his Predecessors have attempted any of the Premisses First that his Predecessors were Legates and though they did visit jure Metropolitico yet they might peradventure as Legates attempt some things which they had had no right nor colour to do if they had be only Metropolitans and Primates Secondarily In this behalf and case it is to be remembred that many of those Archbps. of Canterbury were not only Legates but also Chancellors of England By the which authority they peradventure did enforce and maintain many things attempted against the Law as the late Cardinal did And therfore it is to be dissevered what they did as Legates and what as Metropolitans and what by force after repealed and what by right peaceably enjoyed And not to now jure Metropolitico such things as were done by his Predecessors as Legates nor to chalenge prescription now the authority of the See of Rome is repealed and here extinguished in such things as were attempted only by the pretext of the authority of that See or else after were appealed repealed or resisted Thirdly In This cause it is to be remembred that it appears by the ancient Registers of the Bishops and their Churches that when the Predecessors of the AB did attempt any of these causes aforesaid the Bishops and their Clergies did appeal to the See of Rome And divers times they obtained sentences and executions against him and some remained undecided by the reason of the death of the AB or Bp. complainant for remedy and redress of the same In like maner as we your faithful Subjects have now for this our grief appeled unto your Majesty Item It is to be considered Whether any Metropolitan in other Christen realmes being now Legate doth exercise the premisses after the form now here pretended in his Visitation And in case they do not as it is said they do not attempt any such things but only in their Visitations Provincial useth that the Common Law giveth them then here to be repealed and extinguished for ever To the intent that the Bishops of R. hereafter shal have no color to maintain and justify that they keep here yet and continue the possession of their authority and of our subjection by their Legate Saying that although the AB doth relinquish the name of a Legate yet nevertheless he exerciseth such jurisdiction as the Laws never gave to Metropolitans nor no AB in Christendome doth exercise Legates of the See of R. only excepted And therfore it is to be provided that no sparks remain wherby he might suscitate any such flame if the matter should come in question Finally It is to be remembred that the Bishops nor their Clergies do not refuse to accept and obey the Visitation of the AB as Metropolitan and to pay to him proxies due and accustomed But where the Bishops hath not only the common Laws but also Bulls and Sentences executed against his Predecessors and that long before the making of the Statutes against Provisions declaring what sums he shal not pass for the Proxies of their Churches the Officers of the AB demandeth much more
begun to hate Priests this would make them much more to do so nay and the very Name of Learning too As for the Authority of the Universities they were many times led by Affection which was well known And he wished they had never erred in their Determinations He shewed that they were brought to the King's Part with great difficulty Moreover against the Universities Authority he set the Authority of the King's Father and his Council the Queen's Father and his Council and the Pope and his Then he proceeded to Political Considerations of the Pope and Emperor and the French King That the Pope was a great Adversary of the King's purpose he had shewed divers tokens already and that not without cause Because if he should consent he should do against his Predecessors and restrain his own Power which he would rather gladly enlarge and likewise raise Seditions in many Realms as in Portugal Of whose King the Emperor married one Sister and the Duke of Savoy the other Then he went on extolling the Emperor's Power and lessening that of the French King as to his aiding of us Mentioning the Mischief the Emperor might do England by forbidding only our trading into Flanders and Spain That the French never used to keep their Leagues with us but for their own Ends and that we could never find in our Hearts to trust them And that the two Nations never loved one another And that if the French should but suspect that this new Matrimony of the King with the Lady Ann Bolen now purposed should not continue we must not expect Succor of them but upon intolerable Conditions And then lastly he comes to deliberate for the saving the King's Honour Which as it was impossible to do if he proceeded one step further for he had already he said gone to the very Brink so he began to propound certain means for the rescue of it Thus far is Cranmer's Relation of the Book But here he breaks off the Messenger that tarried for the Letter being in haste promising the next Day to come to the Earl to whom he wrote all this and relate the rest to him by Word of Mouth These Means in short were as I collect from some other Passages of this Letter to refer the Matter wholly to the Pope and to reject the thoughts of matching with the Lady Ann. The which was now much talked of For the King and She were very great and about this very time they both rode together from Hampton-Court to Windsor though she were yet no more then the Lady Ann without any other Title The Censure which our Divine gave of this Book and the Writer was this wherein his Modesty and Candor as well as Judgment appeared That Pole had shewed himself both Witty and Eloquent And that for his Wisdom he might have been of Counsel to the King and such his Rhetorick that if his Book should have been set forth and known to the common People he believed it were not possible to perswade them to the contrary Concerning that which he chiefly drove at namely That the King should commit his great Matter to the Pope's Judgment Cranmer gave his Opinion That he seemed therein to lack much Judgment And that though he pressed it with such goodly Eloquence both of Words and Sentence that he were likely to perswade many yet him he said he perswaded in that Point nothing at all No Cranmer had too well studied the Point to leave such a Case of Conscience to the Pope's Decision But in many other things in this Discourse of Pole he professed he was much satisfied I have placed this whole Letter in the Appendix at the end of these Memorials as I shall do many other Letters and Papers of value partly for the Satisfaction of more curious Readers that love to see Originals and partly for the preservation of many choice Monuments relating to this Man and these Times and for the transferring them to posterity CHAP. III. Cranmer's Embassies IN the Year 1530 Dr. Cranmer was sent by the King into France Italy and Germany with the Earl of Wiltshire Chief Ambassador Dr. Lee Elect Arch-Bishop of York Dr. Stokesly Elect of London Divines Trigonel Karn and Benet Doctors of the Law to dispute these Matrimonial matters of his Majesty at Paris Rome and other places Carrying the Book he had made upon that Subject with him From France they took their Journey to the Pope where Cranmer's Book was delivered to him and he ready to justify it and to offer a Dispute against the Marriage openly upon these two Points which his Book chiefly consisted of viz. I. That no Man Iure Divino could or ought to marry his Brother's Wife II. That the Bishop of Rome by no means ought to dispense to the contrary But after sundry Promises and Appointments made there was no Man found to oppose him and publickly to dispute these Matters with him Yet in more private Argumentations with them that were about the Pope he so forced them that at last they openly granted even in the Pope's chief Court of the Rota that the said Marriage was against God's Law But as for the Pope's Power of Dispensing with the Laws of God it was too advantagious a Tenet to be parted with But Dr. Cranmer boldly and honestly denied it utterly before them all The King's Ambassadors from the Pope repaired to the Emperor Charles V. Cranmer only being left behind at Rome to make good his Challenge and withal more privately to get the Judgments and Subscriptions of the Learned Men there in the King's Case which was one of his Businesses also in Germany after What he did in this latter Affair he signified by a Letter to Crook another of the King's Agents for that purpose in Italy Namely That his Success there at Rome was but little and that they dared not to attempt to know any Man's Mind because of the Pope who had said that Friars should not discuss his Power And added That he looked for little Favour in that Court but to have the Pope and all his Cardinals declare against them Here at Rome Cranmer abode for some Months But in all the Journey he behaved himself so learnedly soberly and wittily that the Earl of Wilts gave him such Commendations to the King by his Letters that the rest coming home he sent him a Commission with Instructions to be his sole Ambassador to the Emperor in his said great Cause Which Commissional Letters of the King to him bare date Ianuary 24. 1531. wherein he was stiled Consiliarius Regius ad Caesarem Orator By this opportunity of travelling through Germany following the Emperor's Court by his Conferences he fully satisfied many Learned Germans which afore were of a contrary Judgment and divers in the Emperor 's own Court and Council also One of the chiefest of these and who suffered severely for it was Cornelius Agrippa Kt. Doctor of both Laws
First the King and Queen sent their Information to the Pope against Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury viz. That he had brought this noble Realm from the Unity of the Catholick Church That he was a Person guilty of Heresy and many other grand Crimes and not worthy to enjoy his Bishoprick and most worthy greater Punishments and they requested that Process might be made against him For the better enquiry into and taking cognizance of the Truth of these Accusations the Pope gave a special Commission signed with his Hand to Iames Puteo Cardinal of S. Mary's and afterwards of S. Simeon to cite the said Thomas before him and all such Witnesses as should be needful to come to a true knowledg of the Arch-bishop's Crimes and accordingly to give the Pope an account of all he should find This he was to do in his own Person or to constitute any dignified Person abiding in these Parts to do the same So the said Cardinal appointed Brookes Bishop of Glocester and some Collegues with him to manage this Commission in his stead This Brookes having been Bishop Gardiner's Chaplain was probably nominated and recommended by the said Gardiner as I do suppose he was the Person that directed the whole managery of this Process against the Arch-bishop And so Brookes being now by this Deputation the Pope's Sub-delegate proceeded in this Cause as was said before In regard of the Arch-bishop's Citation to Rome to answer there and make his personal appearance before the Pope the Letters Executory say Comparere non curaret as an Aggravation of his Crime that he took no care to appear which was false and that therefore as the said Letters ran the King and Queen's Proctors at Rome named Peter Rouilius and Anthony Massa de Gallesio and Alexander Palentarius the Proctor of the Pope's Treasury had sued that Contumacy might be definitively pronounced against the said Thomas Cranmer being cited and not appearing Therefore He Pope Paul IV. sitting in the Throne of Justice and having before his Eyes God alone who is the Righteous Lord and judgeth the World in Righteousness did make this definitive Sentence pronouncing and decreeing the said Thomas Cranmer to be found Guilty of the Crimes of Heresy and other Excesses to be wholly unmindful of the Health of his Soul to go against the Rules and Ecclesiastical Doctrines of the Holy Fathers and against the Apostolical Traditions of the Roman Church and Sacred Councils and the Rites of the Christian Religion hitherto used in the Church especially against the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord and Holy Orders by thinking and teaching otherwise than the Holy Mother Church preacheth and observeth and by denying the Primacy and Authority of the Apostolick See and against the Processions which every Year on Corpus Christi Day were wont to be celebrated by the Pope's Predecessors Mention also is made of his Bringing in again the Heresy abjured by Berengarius of his believing the false and heretical Doctrines of Wicklif and Luther those Arch-Hereticks printing of Books of that nature and publishing them and defending those Doctrines in publick Disputations and that before his Sub-delegate and persisting herein with Obstinacy Therefore the Pope excommunicated him and deprived him of his Arch-bishoprick and all other Places and Privileges whatsoever and adjudged him to be delivered over to the Secular Court and all his Goods to be confiscate And the Pope absolved all Persons from any Oath of Fidelity given to Cranmer and imposed perpetual Silence upon him And moreover upon the instance of the abovesaid Proctors commanded the Bishops of London and Ely to degrade him and so to deliver him over to the Secular Court This bore date December 14. In obedience to these Letters from Rome the two Bishops the Pope's Delegates came down to Oxford and sitting in the Choire of Christ's-Church before the High Altar the said Commissional Letters were read wherein it was specified That all things were indifferently examined on both Parties and Counsel heard as well on the King 's and Queen's behalf who were Cranmer's Accusers as on the behalf of Cranmer so that he wanted nothing to his necessary Defence Whereat the Arch-bishop could not but exclaim while these things were reading against such manifest Lies That as he said when he was continually in Prison and could never be suffered to have Counsel or Advocate at Home he should produce Witness and appoint his Counsel at Rome God must needs punish added he this open and shameless Lying But this Command of Degrading our Arch-bishop was presently proceeded upon Thomas Thirlby Bishop of Ely his old Friend infinitely before-time obliged by the Arch-bishop shed many Tears at the doing of it So that Cranmer moved at it was fain to comfort him and told him He was well contented with it So they apparelled the Arch-bishop in all the Garments and Ornaments of an Archbishop only in mockery every thing was of Canvas and old Clouts And the Crosier was put into his Hand And then he was piece by piece stript of all again When they began to take away his Pal he asked them Which of them had a Pal to take away his Pal They then answered acknowledging they were his Inferiors as Bishops but as they were the Pope's Delegates they might take away his Pal. While they were thus spoiling him of all his Garments he told them That it needed not for that he had done with this Gear long ago While this was doing Boner made a Triumphant Speech against the poor Arch-bishop But when they came to take away his Crosier he held it fast and would not deliver it but pulled out an Appeal out of his left Sleeve under his Wrist and said I appeal unto the next General Council and herein I have comprehended my Cause and the Form of it which I desire may be admitted And prayed divers times to the standers by to be Witnesses naming them by their Names This Appeal is preserved in Fox which is well worthy the reading The Arch-bishop was all along ill dealt with in divers respects in this his Process which himself was well sensible of One was That he had desired the Court that considering he was upon his Life he might have the use of Proctors Advocates and Lawyers But they would allow him none After the Court wherein Brooks was Sub-delegate had done they promised him that he should see his Answers to Sixteen Articles that they had laid against him that he might correct amend and change them where he thought good And that Promise they performed not And so entred his Answers upon record though his Answer was not made upon Oath nor reserved nor made in judicio but extra judicium Which Cranmer made a Protest of But not to the Bishop of Glocester as Judg whom he would not own but to the King 's and Queen's Proctors Martin and Story To them for these Reasons he wrote a Letter That he trusted they
I find in a Supplication made to Queen Elizabeth by Ralph Morice that had been his Secretary for the space of twenty Years During which time he was employed by that most Reverend Father in writing for him about the serious Affairs of the Prince and Realm committed unto him by those most noble and worthy Princes King Henry VIII and King Edward VI concerning as well the Writings of those great and weighty Matrimonial Causes of the said K. Henry VIII as also about the extirpation of the Bishop of Rome his usurped Power and Authority the Reformation of corrupt Religion and Ecclesiastical Laws and Alteration of Divine Service and of divers and sundry Conferences of Learned Men for the Establishing and Advancement of sincere Religion with such like Wherein he said he was most painfully occupied in writing of no small Volumes from time to time CHAP. XXIII The Arch-bishop's Regard to Learned Men. FROM these truly Noble and Useful Exercises of his great Knowledg and Learning let us descend unto the Respect he bare to good Letters Which appeared from his Favour to Places of Learning and Men of Learning We shewed before what were the Applications of the University of Cambridg to him and what a gracious Patron he was to it and its Members Among whose good Offices to that University besides those already mentioned it must not be omitted that he was the great Instrument of placing there those two very Learned Foreign Divines Paulus Fagius and Martin Bucer By his frequent Letters to them then at Strasburg urging them with the distracted and dangerous State of Germany he first brought them over into England in the Year 1548 and having entertained them in his Family the next Year he preferred them both in Cambridg Fagius to be publick Professor of the Hebrew Tongue and Bucer of Divinity And beside the University-Salary he procured for each of them from the King in the third Year of his Reign Patents for an Honorary Stipend of an hundred Pounds per Annum each De gratiâ speciali Domini Regis to be paid by the Hands of the Clerk of the Hanaper or out of the Treasury of the Court of Augmentations Durante beneplacito Domini Regis As I find by King Edward the Sixth's Book of Sales formerly mentioned Which Patents bare date Septemb. 26. Anno 1549. and their Salaries payable from the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin By the way I do not see any where in the said Book of Sales that Peter Martyr placed Professor of Divinity in the other University of Oxon enjoyed any such Royal Salary though he also had been invited over by Canterbury with the King's Knowledg and Allowance and placed there by that Arch-bishop's Means Yet he and his Companion Ochinus had their Annual Allowances from the King and so I suppose had all other Learned Foreigners here Melancthon also who was now expected over was intended some more extraordinary Gratuity Unto this Noble Christian Hospitality and Liberality Latimer the great Court-Preacher excited the King in one of his Sermons before him The Passage may deserve to be repeated I hear say Master Melancthon that great Clerk should come hither I would wish him and such as he is two hundred Pounds a Year The King should never want it in his Coffers at the Year's end There is yet among us two great Learned Men Petrus Martyr and Bernard Ochin which have an hundred Mark a piece I would the King would bestow a thousand Pounds on that Sort. These Matters I doubt not were concerted between Latimer and our Arch-bishop before at whose Palace he now was for the most part As I find by one of his Sermons wherein he speaks of his taking Boat at Lambeth and in another Place he mentioneth a Book he met with in my Lord of Canterbury's Library and elsewhere of many Suitors that applied to him at my Lord of Canterbury's that interrupted his Studies there The use I make of this is that it is a fair Conjecture hence that this and the many other excellent Things so plainly propounded by this Preacher to King Edward happened by the Counsel and Suggestion of the Arch-bishop But to return There was one Dr. William Mowse a Civilian and probably one of his Officers whom for his Merits and Learning our Arch-bishop for many a Year had been a special Benefactor to Sir Iohn Cheke also bare him a very good Will Upon the removal of Dr. Haddon to some other Preferment this Dr. Mowse succeeded Master of Trinity-hall in Cambridg And in the Year 1552 the Arch-bishop valuing his Worth and Integrity was a Suitor at Court for some further Preferment for him whatever it were which the Study of the Civil Law had qualified him for writing his Letters on Mowse's behalf to Secretary Cecyl who was then with the King in his Progress not to forget him And accordingly he was remembred and obtained the Place For which the Arch-bishop afterwards gave him his most hearty Thanks And Dr. Mowse also sent the same Secretary a Letter of Thanks from Cambridg for the Preferment he had obtained by his Means The main Drift thereof was to excuse himself for his Neglect in that he had not sooner paid his Acknowledgments Which as it seems the Secretary had taken some notice of having expected to be thanked for the Kindness he had done him This Letter because there is therein mention made of our Arch-bishop's singular Munificence and Cheke's Affection towards him and Mowse himself once making a Figure in that University I have thought it not amiss to insert in the Appendix Though this Man seemed to be none of the steadiest in his Religion For I find him put out of his Mastership of Trinity-Hall in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign for having been a Protestant and to make way for the Restoration of Dr. Gardiner Bishop of Winchester who had been outed before Upon whose Death that Mastership falling void and Mowse having complied with the Romish Religion he became Master there again And soon after in Queen Elizabeth's Reign he was deprived by her Commissioners for being a Papist and one Harvey came in his Room Dr. Mowse's Fickleness appeared that upon the first tidings that fled to Cambridg of Queen Mary's Success against the Lady Iane's Party he with several other temporizing University-Men changed his Religion and in four and twenty Hours was both Protestant and Papist The Truth is his Judgment varied according to his worldly Interest And being one of those that came about so roundly he was appointed by the complying Party of the University to be one of the two Dr. Hatcher being the other that should repair unto Dr. Sands then the Vice-Chancellor to demand of him without any colour of Reason or Authority the University-Books the Keys and such other things as were in his keeping And so they did And my Author makes an Observation of his Ingratitude as well as of
value Item One and twenty pair of Hangings for the Altars of the Church Vestments Albes c. Item Twelve Albes of silk Item Of linnin Albes belonging to the Sextre and other Altars 326. Item Vestments belonging to the Altars and Chauntries are of divers Values and works to the number of twenty six Item Corporows cases and Corporaws thirty six Item Altar cloths of Diaper and linnin One and twenty Item Mas books thirteen belonging to the Sextre and Altars The Inventary of our Ladies Chappel Imprimis Five little shrines of copper and guilt Item Three chalices of silver and gilt Item Two Paxes the one of silver and gilt and the other of silver Item Two pair of Beads and silver and gilt being but of ten stones a piece Item Three chappels of divers suites Item Two Copys of silk Item Thirteen Albes and three of them white silk Item Three Collars for the three Altars of silk garnished with plate of silver and gilt and with stones Item Four Altar cloths of linnin Item Two Altars of silk for the Altar The Inventory of the Priors house Imprimis Six salts with three covers of silver and gilt Item Six spoons of silver and gilt Item Five and twenty other spoons of silver Item Three standing Cups one plain and other two swaged with their Covers of silver and gilt Item Seven bollis of silver and gilt with one Cover Item Six silver cupps with one Cover Item Four nuts with three covers Item Two Masers with one cover Item Two silver Basins with their Ewers Item Two Gallon pots of silver and gilt to serve Peter and Paul Item Two smal silver pots Item Two chalices of silver and gilt The Inventary of the Subpriors house Item Two salts of silver and gilt with a Cover Item One little salt of silver with a Cover Item Three silver peeces Item Eighteen silver spoons Item Three old Masers perused The Inventary of the Hordars house Item Two Salts of silver and gilt with a Cover Item One standing Nut with a Cover Item Three silver peeces Item Eighteen silver spoons Item Three old Masers perused The Inventary of the Fratrie Imprimis One standing Cup of mother pearle the foot and Cover being of silver and gilt Item Two great bollys of silver Item One standing Cup of silver and gilt with his Cover Item One standing Massar with a Cover of Wood. Item Three great bollis of Wood with bonds of silver and gilt Item Seven and thirty silver spoons of divers fashions Item Four old Massars perused NUM XVII A Reply to the Archbishop against his Court of Audience TO the first His Protestation sheweth no more but that he is not to be suspected to keep that Court of his Audience by the authority of any Legacy from Rome as by the name of Legate of Rome But forasmuch as no ABp within Christendom hath nor never had any authority to keep any such Court by the reason of the ABric but only Legates of the See of Rome Which Legates what vexations and oppressions they have done by the pretence thereof not only to Ordinaries but also to the Layfee by calling of poor men from the furthest parts of the realm to London for an halfpeny candle or for a little opprobrious word as was declared and proved plainly in this Parliament Which was a great cause of making of a Statute to remedy that before the Statute of the abolishment of the Bishops of Romes authority within this realm Insomuch that this execution of Legacies in other jurisdictions and realms hath been one of the greatest and intolerablest usurpations of the Bp. of Rome these many years among the Commonalty and therfore a thing most necessary of reformation in consideration of the premises no ABp can exercise this authority except he implyeth to al the world tho he speak it not nor write it not that he is a Legate of the See of Rome And in case it shal please the Kings Grace to give like authority notwithstanding so many incommodities to his Graces Subjects by the use therof and not one commodity at al to be abyden by it should seem better to give it to some other by special Commission at his Grace's pleasure Wherby it shal be known certainly to come from his Grace rather than to join it to the ABps See Wherby the old poyson might stil lurk and break out one day again if it should chance some to be ABp of Cant. that would change their copy as hath been in times past And moreover if his Grace should make his Legate it should peradventure derogate the power of his Graces General Vicar And if both should occupy then shall the people so much the rather take occasion to think and say that his Graces Vicar exerciseth the power of a Legate by his Graces authority and the ABp of Canterbury by authority of the Bp. of Rome And where the ABp saith that he seeth no cause why he should not keep that Court at the lest by authority of the Act of Parlament as al others enjoy by that Act al things that they had before from the See of Rome it seems that he never read the said Act nor yet can discern betwixt a thing absolute that may endure without a Dependence and an Advouson in gross and a thing that standeth in a continual Dependence as Service to the Seignory For Exemptions and Dispensations and such others be Absolutes depending nothing of the Grantor after his Grant But Legacies be but respectives And as no longer Lord no longer Service so no longer Bp. of Rome Lord here no longer his Vicar which was but his Servant as appeareth by the text of his Legacy whereof these be the words in the Chapter Quum non ignoretis De officio Legati qui in Provincia sua vices nostras gerere comprobatur And the Act of Parlament which he allegeth is so plain to every Reader that it cannot be drawn with twenty team of Oxen to stretch to the continuance of this Court of his Audience It is in the xxj th Chapter of the Session Anno xxv and in the xxvj th leafe in the latter end The words therof there be these Provided alwayes that this Act or any thing therin contained shal not hereafter be taken nor expounded to the derogation or taking away of any Grants or Confirmations of any Liberties Privileges or Jurisdictions of any Monasteries Abbies Priories or other Houses or Places exempt which before the making of this Act have been obtained at the See of Rome or by the authority thereof Loo this Act speaketh only of Exemptions which is a thing absolute and that only of Houses exempt and of their Jurisdictions Which might be suffered upon their few Parochians and neibours as Prebends have in their Cathedral churches But this Act speaketh not of no jurisdiction universal of Archbishops Bishops or other person Legacy is of that other sort and universal jurisdiction depending on him that usurped an universal
who had no Authority within this Realm Whereat the King made a Pause and then asked him how he was able to prove it At which time he alledged several Texts out of Scripture and the Fathers proving the Supream Authority of Kings in their own Realms and Dominions and withal shewing the intolerable Usurpations of the Bishops of Rome Of this the King talked several times with him and perceiving that he could not be brought to acknowledg the Pope's Authority the King called one Dr. Oliver an eminent Lawyer and other Civilians and devised â—ith them how he might bestow the Arch-Bishoprick upon him salving his Conscience They said he might do it by way of Protestation and so one to be sent to Rome to take the Oath and do every thing in his Name Cranmer said to this It should be super animam suam and seemed to be satisfied in what the Lawyers told him And accordingly when he was consecrated made his Protestation That he did not admit the Pope's Authority any further than it agreed with the express Word of God And that it might be lawful for him at all times to speak against him and to impugn his Errors when there should be occasion And so he did Whether Warham the Arch-deacon had conceived any Prejudice against our new Arch-Bishop by some warning given him by the former Arch-Bishop as was hinted above or whether he was willing to give place upon Cranmer's Entreaty that he might provide for his Brother so it was that Edmund Cranmer Brother to the Arch-Bishop succeeded Warham in the Arch-deaconry of Canterbury and the Provostship of Wingham Who parted with both these Dignities by Cession And by the Privity and Consent of the Arch-Bishop he had a Stipend or Pension of sixty pounds per Annum allowed him during his Life out of the Arch-deaconary and twenty pounds per Annum out of Wingham by his Successor aforesaid Who continued Arch-deacon until Queen Mary's Days and was then deprived and his Prebend and his Parsonage of Ickham all taken from him in the Year 1554 for being a married Clerk The first was given to Nicholas Harpsfield the second to Robert Collins Bachelour of Law and Commissary of Canterbury and the third to Robert Marsh. The King had before linked him into his great Business about Queen Katharine and the Lady Anne So now when he had nominated him for Arch-Bishop he made him a Party and an Actor in every step almost which he took in that Affair For to fetch the Matter a little backward Not long before the Archiepiscal See was devolved upon Cranmer the King had created the Lady Anne Marchioness of Pembroke and taken her along with him in great State into France when by their mutual Consent there was an Interview appointed between the two Kings At Calais King Henry permitted Francis the French King to take a view of this Lady who then made both Kings a curious and rich Mask where both honoured her by dancing This was in the month of October In the Month before I find a parcel of very rich Jewels were sent from Greenwich to Hampton Court by Mr. Norrys probably he who was Groom of the Stole and executed upon Queen Ann's Business afterwards Which Jewels as some of them might be for the King 's own wearing now he was going into France so in all probability others were either lent or given to the Marchioness to adorn and make her fine when she should appear and give her entertainment to the French King For the sake of such as be curious I have set down in the Appendix a Particular of these most splendid and Royal Jewels from an Original signed with the King 's own Hand in token of his Receit of them Immediately after the King's and â—â—e Marchionesses return from France he married her At which Wedding though very private the Arch-Bishop was one that assisted according to the Lord Herbert but according to the Author of the Britannic Antiquities did the Sacred Office When she was crowned Queen which was Whitsontide following the Arch-Bishop performed the Ceremonies When after that the King had a Daughter by her he would have the Arch-Bishop assist at the Christening and be her Godfather And before this when Queen Katharine was to be divorced from the King and the Pope's Dispensation of that Marriage declared Null our Arch-Bishop pronounced the Sentence and made the Declaration solemnly and publickly at Dunstable Priory Thus the King dipped and engaged Cranmer with himself in all his Proceeding in this Cause Now as all these doings had danger in them so especially this last highly provoked the Pope for doing this without his Leave and Authority as being a presumptuous Encroachment upon his Prerogative Insomuch that a publick Act was made at Rome that unless the King undid all that he had done and restored all things in integrum leaving them to his Decision he would excommunicate him And this Sentence was affixed and set up publickly at Dunkirk Which put the King upon an Appeal from the Pope to the next General Council lawfully called The Arch-Bishop also foreseeing the Pope's Threatning hovering likewise over his Head by the King's Advice made his Appeal by the English Ambassador there I have seen the King's Original Letter to Dr. Bonner ordering him to signify to the Pope in Order and Form of Law his Appeal sending him also the Instrument of his Appeal with the Proxy devised for that purpose This bare date August 18 th from his Castle at Windsor I have reposited it in the Appendix Which Order of the King Bonner did accordingly discharge at an Audience he got of the Pope at Marceilles November 7. And that Letter which the Lord Herbert saith he saw of Bonner to the King wherein he signified as much must be his Answer to this of the King to him Dr. Cranmer having now yielded to the King to accept the Arch-Bishoprick it was in the beginning of the next Year viz. 1533. March 30. and in the 24 th of King Henry that he received his Consecration But that ushered in with abundance of Bulls some dated in February and some in March from Pope Clement to the number of Eleven as may be seen at length in the beginning of this Arch-Bishop's Register The first was to King Henry upon his Nomination of Cranmer to him to be Arch-Bishop The Pope alloweth and promoteth him accordingly The second was a Bull to Cranmer himself signifying the same The third Bull absolved him from any Sentences of Excommunication Suspension Interdiction c. It was written from the Pope to him under the Title of Arch-deacon of Taunton in the Church of Wells and Master in Theology and ran thus Nos ne forsan aliquibus sententiis censuris poenis Ecclesiasticis ligatus sis c. Volentes te a quibusvis excommunicationis suspensionis interdicti aliisque Ecclesiasticis sententiis censuris poenis a jure
their own Houses where they received Causes Complaints and Appeals and had learned Civilians living with them that were Auditors of the said Causes before the Arch-bishop gave Sentence pretending that he held it as the Pope's Legat Urging also the great Troubles and Inconveniences it caused both to the Clergy and the Laity and that every Man must by virtue of that Court be forced up to London from the farthest part of the Land for a slanderous Word or a Trifle And that they thought it convenient if it were the King's Pleasure to continue that Court that he would settle it upon some other and not upon the Arch-bishop that so it might appear the Original of that Court was from the King and not from the Pope And lastly that it would not be safe to constitute the Arch-bishop the Pope's Legat because it would infringe the Power of the Vicar-General This was drawn up in way of Petition and Complaint either to the King or Parliament by a Combination of some of the Convocation as I suspect the Paper being writ by the Hand of the Register of the Lower House of Convocation The great Wheel we may be sure that set a moving this Device was Winchester his never-failing Adversary The King notwithstanding bad the Arch-bishop maintain his Court. And he answered all their Pleas against it and by way of Protestation affirmed that he kept not his Court by virtue of his Bull from Rome for Legat and that none could suspect that he did And that he saw no Cause but that he might keep that Court by virtue of the late Act of Parliament that gave Power to enjoy all things that were before had from the See of Rome And finally he answered that it was the King's Will and Command that he should continue his Court. To which the Convocation or rather some part of it made a Reply that may be seen in the Appendix But notwithstanding these Discouragements which were thrown in probably to hinder his good Designs the Arch-bishop vigorously prosecuted a Reformation at this Convocation Where assisted by Crumwel the King's Vicar General he earnestly laboured for the redress of several Abuses and Errors in the English Church And that not without good Success at length For after much deliberation among the Clergy there assembled and much opposition too he got a Book of divers good Articles to that purpose to be agreed upon and subscribed An account of which by and by shall follow CHAP. XI Articles of Religion NOW though I do not find the King went so far as that it should be enjoined on all the Clergy to own the Articles of this Book by their own Hands subscribed yet he published and recommended them to all his loving Subjects in general to accept and repute them to be agreeable to God's Laws and proper for the establishment of Peace and Concord And further probably in prudence the King thought not fit yet to go considering the great Disputes and Arguments that had happened in the Convocation hereupon Now because this was one of the great Services our pious Prelate contributed to the Church and was one of the first Steps made in the Reformation of the Doctrine and Worship it will not be amiss here in order to the inlightning this History to set down the Heads of this Book though it be done by others before me And notwithstanding what the Noble Author of the History of Henry VIII saith he gathered by some Records that this Book was devised by the King himself and recommended afterwards to the Convocation by Crumwel yet we have reason to attribute a great share therein to the Arch-bishop They that are minded to see a Draught of these Articles from the Original with the Royal Assent prefixed to them may have it in Dr. Fuller's Church-History Which he tells us he transcribed out of the Acts of the Convocation The Bishop of Sarum also met with an Original of them in the Cotton Library wrote out fairly as it seems for the King 's own Use and subscribed with all the Hands of the Convocation thereunto He also hath inserted the Transcript of them in the first part of his History of the Reformation In the Rebellion in the North which happened this Year 1536 chiefly raised by Priests and Friars many Copies of these Articles for the Book was printed by Barthelet did Crumwel send by the King's Order to the Duke of Norfolk the King's Lieutenant there to disperse in those Parts together with the Original Copy it self as it was signed by the Hands of the Convocation amounting to the number of 116 Bishops Abbots Priors Arch-deacons and Proctors of the Clergy Which the said Duke had order to shew unto the Clergy and others as occasion served that they might understand it was a proper Act of the Church and no Innovation of the King and a few of his Counsellors as they gave out And after he had made his use of this Original he was required to reserve it safe for the King This choice Treasure which the King himself required such care to be taken of Sir Robert Cotton afterwards procured at his no small Expence no doubt It is very fairly written in Vellam and at the bottom of the first Page is written Robertus Cotton Bruceus by Sir Robert's own Hand signifying his Value of this Monument It is still extant in that incomparable Library in the Volume Cleopatra E. 5. And there I have seen it and diligently compared it Excuse this Digression and I now proceed to the Articles themselves These Articles were of two sorts some concerning Faith and some concerning Ceremonies The former sort were digested under these five Titles following I. The Principal Articles of Faith And they were these That all those things that be comprehended in the whole Body and Canon of the Bible and in the three Creeds are true and constantly to be believed That we take and hold the same for the most holy and infallible Words of God That the Articles of the Faith contained in the Creeds are necessary to be believed for Man's Salvation That the same words be kept in which the Articles of Faith are conceived That all Opinions contrary to the Articles and which were condemned in the four first Councils are to be utterly refused II. The Sacrament of Baptism That it was instituted and ordained by Iesus Christ as necessary to Everlasting Life That by it all as well Infants as such as have the use of Reason have Remission of Sins and the Grace and Favour of God offered them That Infants and Innocents must be Baptized because the Promise of Grace and Everlasting Life pertains as well to them as to those who have the use of Reason And that therefore Baptized Infants shall undoubtedly be saved That they are to be Baptized because of Original Sin which is remitted only by Baptism That they that are once Baptized must not be
your Face No not so my Lord said the King I have better regard unto you than to permit your Enemies so to overthrow you And therefore I will have you to Morrow come to the Council which no doubt will send for you And when they break this Matter unto you require them that being one of them you may have so much Favour as they would have themselves that is to have your Accusers brought before you And if they stand with you without regard of your Allegations and will in no Condition condescend unto your Request but will needs commit you to the Tower then appeal you from them to our Person and give to them this my Ring which he then delivered unto the Arch-bishop by the which said the King they shall well understand that I have taken your Cause into my Hand from them Which Ring they well know that I use it for no other Purpose but to call Matters from the Council into mine own Hands to be ordered and determined And with this good Advice Cranmer after most humble Thanks departed from the King's Majesty The next Morning according to the King's Monition and his own Expectation the Council sent for him by Eight of the Clock in the Morning And when he came to the Council-Chamber-Door he was not permitted to enter into the Council-Chamber but stood without among Serving-men and Lacquies above three quarters of an hour many Counsellors and others going in and out The Matter seemed strange unto his Secretary who then attended upon him which made him slip away to Dr. Butts to whom he related the manner of the thing Who by and by came and kept my Lord Company And yet e're he was called into the Council Dr. Butts went to the King and told him that he had seen a strange Sight What is that said the King Marry said he my Lord of Canterbury is become a Lacquey or a Serving-man For to my knowledg he hath stood among them this hour almost at the Council-Chamber-Door Have they served my Lord so It is well enough said the King I shall talk with them by and by Anon Cranmer was called into the Council there it was declared unto him That a great Complaint was made of him both to the King and to them That he and others by his Permission had infected the whole Realm with Heresy And therefore it was the King's Pleasure that they should commit him to the Tower and there for his Trial to be examined Cranmer required as is before declared with many both Reasons and Perswasions that he might have his Accusers come there before them before they used any further Extremity against him In fine there was no Intreaty could serve but that he must needs depart to the Tower I am sorry my Lords said Cranmer that you drive me unto this Exigent to appeal from you to the King's Majesty who by this Token hath resumed this Matter into his own Hand and dischargeth you thereof And so delivered the King's Ring unto them By and by the Lord Russel swore a great Oath and said Did not I tell you my Lords what would come of this Matter I know right well that the King would never permit my Lord of Canterbury to have such a Blemish as to be imprisoned unless it were for High-Treason And so as the manner was when they had once received that Ring they left off their Matter and went all unto the King's Person both with his Token and the Cause When they came unto his Highness the King said unto them Ah my Lords I thought that I had had a discreet and wise Council but now I perceive that I am deceived How have you handled here my Lord of Canterbury What make ye of him A Slave Shutting him out of the Council-Chamber among Serving-men Would ye be so handled your selves And after such taunting words as these spoken the King added I would you should well understand that I account my Lord of Canterbury as faithful a Man towards me as ever was Prelate in this Realm and one to whom I am many ways beholden by the Faith I owe unto God and so laid his Hand upon his Breast And therefore who loveth me said he will upon that Account regard him And with these words all and especially my Lord of Norfolk answered and said We meant no manner of Hurt unto my Lord of Canterbury that we requested to have him in Durance Which we only did because he might after his Trial be set at Liberty to his greater Glory Well said the King I pray you use not my Friends so I perceive now well enough how the World goeth among you There remaineth Malice among you one to another let it be avoided out of hand I would advise you And so the King departed and the Lords shook Hands every Man with the Arch-bishop Against whom never more after durst any Man spurn during King Henry's Life And because the King would have Love always nourished between the Lords of the Council and the Arch-bishop he would send them divers times to Dinner with him And so he did after this Reconciliation Thus did the King interpose himself divers times between his Arch-bishop and his irreconcileable Enemies the Papists and observing by these Essays against him under what Perils he was like to come hereafter for his Religion about this Time it was as I conjecture that the King changed his Coat of Arms. For unto the Year 1543 he bore his Paternal Coat of Three Cranes Sable as I find by a Date set under his Arms yet remaining in a Window in Lambeth-House For it is to be noted That the King perceiving how much ado Cranmer would have in the Defence of his Religion altered the Three Cranes which were parcel of his Ancestors Arms into Three Pelicans declaring unto him That those Birds should signify unto him that he ought to be ready as the Pelican is to shed his Blood for his young Ones brought up in the Faith of Christ. For said the King you are like to be tasted if you stand to your Tackling at length As in very deed many and sundry times he was shouldered at both in this King's Reign as you have heard and under the two succeding Princes CHAP. XXIX Occasional Prayers and Suffrages OCcasional Prayers and Suffrages to be used throughout all Churches began now to be more usual than formerly For these common Devotions were twice this Year appointed by Authority as they had been once the last which I look upon the Arch-bishop to be the great Instrument in procuring That he might by this means by little and little bring into use Prayer in the English Tongue which he so much desired and that the People by understanding part of their Prayers might be the more desirous to have their whole Service rendred intelligible whereby God might be served with the more Seriousness and true Devotion The last Year there was a plentiful Crop upon the Ground
them to do otherwise But determinately to say what was best he could not but trusted He whose Cause they had in hand would put them in Mind to do that which should be most for his Glory the Profit of his Flock and their own Salvation It came at length to that forwardness that VVeston and his Complices had taken out the Commission And it was easy to obtain such a Commission at such a Lord Chancellor's Hands And they were likely speedily to put it in execution Hoper who seemed to have the first notice of it sent the intelligence in a Letter to Farrar Taylor Bradford and Philpot Prisoners in the King 's Bench. He shewed them what his Advice was and desired them to consult among themselves what Course were best to be taken His own Thoughts were considering what foul Play the three Learned Men had at Oxford and which they were like to have themselves at this Disputation I. Because they did commonly make false Allegations of the Doctors and took Pieces and Scraps of them to prove their Tenets against the real Mind and Sense of those Authors they should therefore refuse wholly to dispute unless they might have Books present before them II. To have sworn Notaries to take things spoken indifferently which would be hard to have the Adversaries having the oversight of all things and so would make theirs better and the Protestants worse III. If they perceived when they were disputing that two or three or more spake together and used Taunts and Scoffs as they did at Oxon then to refuse to dispute any longer but to appeal to be heard before the Queen and the whole Council Whereby this Benefit would happen that they should be delivered from the Commissioners appointed to hear and judg them who meant nothing less than to hear the Cause indifferently being all Enemies already unto the Protestants and their Cause and at a point to give Sentence against them And then many at the Court might be strengthned who know the Truth already and others better informed who erred rather of Zeal than Malice and a third sort that be indurate might be answered fully to their shame He knew he said the Adversaries would deny their Appeal but yet he advised to challenge it and to take witness thereof of such as should be present and require for indifferency of Hearing and Judgment to be heard either before the Queen and Council or else before all the Parliament as it was used in K. Edward's Days So wise and wary now were they But I do not find that this Project of the Papists went further And let us return and visit these three faithful Prisoners of Iesus Christ. After their Disputation and Condemnation their Servants were discharged that so they might not have any Conference or Intelligence of any thing abroad But God provided for every one of them instead of their Servants faithful Fellows that would be content to hear and see and do for them whatsoever they could as Ridley wrote in a Letter to Bradford To these Fathers also came supplies of Meat Money and Shirts from London not only from such as were of their Acquaintance but from Strangers with whom they had no acquaintance doing it for God's Sake and his Gospel's The Bailiffs so watched them now that they would not suffer them to have any Conferences among themselves The Scholars of that University seemed universally against them Which Ridley in a Letter to his Friend Bradford could not but take notice of calling it A wonderful thing that among so many never yet Scholar offered any of them so far as he knew any manner of Favour either for or in Christ's Cause They had all things common among them as Meat Money and whatever one had that might do another good Neither of them now in Prison were idle Old Latimer read the New Testament through seven Times deliberately while he was a Prisoner Cranmer busied himself earnestly in vindication of his Writings of the Sacrament against Winchester under the Name of Marcus Constantius And so did Ridley who in two Treatises which he now made shewed how Winchester varied from other Papists in eighteen Articles and from himself in eighteen more And a third Paper he wrote shewing several things Winchester yielded unto concerning the spiritual Use of the Sacrament Fox hath set down these in his History and preserved them to us these Collections of Ridley falling into his Hands Ridley also wrote while he was a Prisoner in Oxford De Abominationibus Sedis Romanae Pontificum Romanorum and Annotations more large upon Tonstal's first Book of Transubstantiation I suppose and more sparingly upon the Second He was now also diligent to set others on work for the exposing false Religion Desiring one Grimbold to translate Laurentius Valla his Book which he made and wrote against the Fable of Constantine's Donation and glorious Exaltation of the See of Rome And having done that he would have had him to translate a Work of Aeneas Sylvius De Gestis Basiliensis Concilii In which altho said he there be many things that savour of the Pan yet I dare say the Papists would glory but a little to see such Books go forth in English He directed Austin Bernher Latimer's Servant to recommend those Works unto Grimbold who had been his Chaplain and a Man as Ridley gave him the Character of much Eloquence both in English and Latin but he complied and subscribed And he also bad Austin tell Grimbold That if he would know where to have these Books he might find them in a Work set forth by Ortwinus Gratius intitled Fasciculus rerum expetendarum And added That if such things had been set forth in our English Tongue heretofore he supposed great Good might have come to Christ's Church thereby But we have not yet mentioned all the Pieces that Ridley wrote in Prison For besides those above-mentioned were these following I. A little Treatise which was jointly composed by him and Latimer in the Tower which is preserved in Fox with the Letters N. R. before Ridley's Sayings and H. L. before Latimer's II. A Draught which he drew out of the Evangelists and S. Paul shewing thence that the words of the Lord's Supper are figuratively to be understood alledging out of the Doctors three of the Greek Church Origen Chrysostom and Theodoret and three of the Latin Tertullian Augustin and Gelasius III. Three Positions to the third Question propounded in Oxford concerning the Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass. IV. His Disputation in the Schools as he wrote it after it was over V. A Letter Ad Fratres in diversis Carceribus All these fell into the Hands of the Papists by this Mishap or Treachery Grimbold expressing a great desire to have every thing that Ridley had writ during his Imprisonment Mr. Shipside Ridley's Brother-in-Law procured and sent him all those Writings before mentioned but they were all seized whether in Grimbold's Possession or
greatest Blemishes of his Life For now the Popish Party thinking what a piece of Glory it would be to gain this great Man to their Church used all Means all Arts as well as Arguments to bring him to recant They set the Doctors of the University upon him He was entertained at the Dean of Christs-Church his Lodging There they treated him with good Fare They got him to Bowls with them They let him have his Pleasure in taking the Air. Sometimes they accosted him with Arguments and Disputations Sometimes by Flatteries Promises and Threatnings They told him The Noble-men bare him good Will that his Return would be highly acceptable to the King and Queen That he should enjoy his former Dignity in the Church or if it liked him better he should lead a quiet Life in more privacy And that it was but setting his Name in two Words in a piece of Paper They told him the Queen was resolved to have Cranmer a Catholick or no Cranmer at all That he was still lusty and strong and might live many a Year more if he would not willingly cut off his own Life by the terrible Death of Burning He rejected these Temptations a long while but at last was overcome and yielded The Recantation I shall not repeat it being to be seen at large in Fox It was signed by his Hand The Witnesses thereunto were two or three who had been exceedingly busy in tampering with him One Sydal a great Professor in the last Reign and Iohn and Richard two Spanish Friars The Doctors and Prelats caused this Recantation speedily to be printed and dispersed When the Queen saw his Subscription she was glad of it but would not alter her Determination to have him burned by the instigation as I suppose of Pole the Legat. The Writ for which was sent down by Hethe Lord Chancellor in the latter end of February under the Broad Seal It was charged upon his Converters that they were negligent in procuring his Life from the Queen But the true Reason was the Queen was resolved not to grant it She privately gave Instruction to Cole to prepare a Sermon to preach at his Burning And several Lords and other Justices of the Peace in those Parts were ordered to attend there with their Servants and Retinue to keep Peace and to see him Executed Cole coming with his Errand to Oxon visited him in the Prison and asked him if he stood firm to what he had subscribed This was the Day before his Execution but saying nothing to him of his determined Death The next Day being the Day he was to be burned viz. March 21. he came again and asked him if he had any Money And having none he gave him certain Crowns to bestow to what Poor he would and so departed exhorting him to Con-Constancy But the disconsolate Arch-bishop perceived to what this tended and being by and by to be brought to S. Mary's where Cole was to preach there openly to confess what he had more privately subscribed he resolved with himself to disburden his Conscience and to revoke his Recantation And he prepared a Prayer and a Declaration of his Faith which he drew up in writing and carried it privately along with him to make use of it when he saw his Occasion The manner how he behaved himself after Cole's Sermon and how he delivered his last Mind and with what Bitterness and Tears he did it and how he was pulled down by the Scholars Priests and Friars with the greatest Indignation at this their Disappointment and how he was led out of the Church forthwith to the Place of Burning over against Baliol College and how he there first put his right Hand into the Flames to be consumed for that base Subscription that it made and how his Heart was found whole and unconsumed in the Ashes after he was burnt These and the rest of the Particulars of his Martyrdom I might leave to Fox and other Historians from him to relate Yet because it is not convenient so briefly to pass over such a remarkable Scene of his Life being his last appearance upon the Stage of this World I shall represent it in the Words of a certain grave Person unknown but a Papist who was an Eye and Ear-Witness and related these Matters as it seems very justly in a Letter from Oxon to his Friend Which is as followeth But that I know for our great Friendship and long-continued Love you look even of Duty that I should signify to you of the Truth of such things as here chanceth among us I would not at this time have written to you the unfortunate End and doubtful Tragedy of T. C. late Bishop of Canterbury Because I little pleasure take in beholding of such heavy Sights And when they are once overpassed I like not to reherse them again being but a renewing of my Wo and doubling my Grief For although his former Life and wretched End deserves a greater Misery if any greater might have chanced than chanced unto him yet setting aside his Offences to God and his Country and beholding the Man without his Faults I think there was none that pitied not his Case and bewailed his Fortune and feared not his own Chance to see so noble a Prelat so grave a Counsellor of so long-continued Honour after so many Dignities in his old Years to be deprived of his Estate adjudged to die and in so painful a Death to end his Life I have no delight to increase it Alas it is too much of it self that ever so heavy a Case should betide to Man and Man to deserve it But to come to the matter On Saturday last being the 21 th of March was his Day appointed to die And because the Morning was much Rainy the Sermon appointed by Mr. Dr. Cole to be made at the Stake was made in S. Mary's Church Whither Dr. Cranmer was brought by the Mayor and Aldermen and my Lord Williams With whom came divers Gentlemen of the Shire Sir T. A Bridges Sir Iohn Browne and others Where was prepared over against the Pulpit an high Place for him that all the People might see him And when he had ascended it he kneeled down and prayed weeping tenderly which moved a great number to Tears that had conceived an assured hope of his Conversion and Repentance Then Mr. Cole began his Sermon The sum whereof was this First He declared Causes why it was expedient that he should suffer notwithstanding his Reconciliation The chief are these One was for that he had been a great cause of all this Alteration in this Realm of England And when the Matter of the Divorce between King Henry VIII and Queen Katharine was commenced in the Court of Rome he having nothing to do with it set upon it as Judg which was the entry to all the Inconveniences that followed Yet in that he excused him that he thought he did it not of Malice but by the Perswasions and
that the Generality of the Clergy should with the example of such a few light persons procede to mariage without a common consent of his H. and the Realm doth streitly charge and command that al such as have attempted mariage as also such as wil presumptuously procede in the same not to minister the Sacrament or other Ministery mâ—stical nor have any office cure privilege profit or commodity heretofore accustomed and belonging to the Clergy of the Realm But shal be utterly after such marriage expelled and deprived and be held and reputed as Lay persons to al purposes and intents And that such as after this Proclamation shall of presumptuous minds take wives and be maried shal run into his Graces Indignation and suffer further punishment and imprisonment at his Graces will and plesure NUM IX Bishop Fisher to Secretary Crumwel declaring his willingness to swear to the Succession AFTER my most humble commendations Whereas ye be content that I shold write unto the Kings Highnes in good faith I dread me that I cannot be so circumspect in my writing but that some word shal scape me wherewith his Grace shal be moved to some further displeasure against me wherof I wold be very sorry For as I wil answer before God I wold not in any maner of point offend his Grace my duty saved unto God whom I must in every thing prefer And for this consideration I am ful lothe and ful of fear to write unto his Highnes in this matter Nevertheless sithen I conceive that it is your mind that I shal so do I will endeavour me to the best I can But first here I must beseech you good Master Secretary to cal to your remembrance that at my last being before you and the other Commissioners for taking of the othe concerning the Kings most noble succession I was content to be sworn unto that parcel concerning the Succession And there I did rehearse this reason which I said moved me I doubted not but that the Prince of any Realme with the assent of his Nobles and Commons might appoint for his Succession royal soche an order as was seen unto his Wisdom most according And for this reason I said that I was content to be sworn unto that part of the othe as concerning the Succession This is a very truth as God help my soul at my most nede albeit I refused to swear to some other parcels because that my Conscience wolde not serve me so to do NUM X. Lee Bishop Elect of Litchfield and Coventry to Secretary Crumwel concerning Bp. Fisher. PLeasyth you to be adverted that I have been with my Lord of Rochester who is as ye left him that is to say ready to take his othe for the Succession and to swear never to meddle more in disputation of the validity of the Matrimony or invalidity with the Lady Dowager but that utterly to refuse For as for the case of the prohibition Levitical his conscience is so knit thaâ— he cannot send it off from him whatsoever betide him And yet he wil and doth profess his Allegiance to our Soveraign Lord the King during his life Truly the man is nigh going and doubtless cannot continue unles the King and his Council be merciful unto him For the body cannot bear the clothes on his back as knoweth God Who preserve you In hast scribbled by your own most bounden Roland Co. Litch electus confirmatus NUM XI The Archbishop to Secretary Crumwel in behalf of Bp. Fisher and Sr. Thomas More Right Worshipful Master Crumwel AFTER most hearty Commendations c. I doubt not but you do right wel remembre that my Lord of Rochester and Master More were contented to be sworn to the Act of the Kings Succession but not to the Preamble of the same What was the cause of thair refusal thereof I am uncertain and they wold by no means express the same Nevertheless it must nedis be either the diminution of the authority of the Bushop of Rome or ells the reprobation of the Kings first pretensed Matrimony But if they do obstinately persist in thair opinions of the Preamble yet me semeth it scholde not be refused if they wil be sworne to the veray Act of Succession so that they wil be sworne to maintene the same against al powers and potentates For hereby shal be a great occasion to satisfy the Princess Dowager and the Lady Mary which do think they sholde dampne thair sowles if they sholde abandon and relinquish thair astates And not only it sholde stop the mouths of thaym but also of th' Emperor and other thair friends if thay geve as moche credence to my Lord of Rochester and Master More spekyng and doinge against thaym as they hitherto have done and thought that al other sholde have done whan they spake and did with thaym And peradventure it sholde be a good quietation to many other within this reaulm if such men sholde say that the Succession comprized within the said Act is good and according to Gods lawes For than I think there is not one within this reaulme that would ones reclaim against it And whereas divers persones either of a wilfulness wil not or of an indurate and invertible conscience cannot altre from thair opinions of the Kings first pretensed mariage wherein they have ones said thair minds and percase have a persuasion in thair heads that if they sholde now vary therefrom thair fame and estimation were distained for ever or ells of the authority of the Busschope of Rome yet if al the Reaulme with one accord wolde apprehend the said succession in my judgment it is a thing to be amplected and imbraced Which thing although I trust surely in God that it shal be brought to pass yet hereunto might not a little avayl the consent and othes of theis two persons the Busschope of Rochester and Master More with thair adherents or rather Confederates And if the Kings pleasure so were thair said othes might be suppressed but whan and whare his Highness might take some commodity by the publyshing of the same Thus our Lord have you ever in his conservation From my maner at Croyden the xvii day of April Your own assured ever Thomas Cantuar. NUM XII Nix Bishop of Norwich to Warham Archbishop of Cant. for suppressing such as read books brought from beyond Sea AFter most humble recommendations I do your Grace to understand that I am accumbred with such as kepyth and readyth these arroneous books in English and beleve and geve credence to the same and techyth others that they shold so do My Lord I have done that lyeth in me for the suppression of soch persons but it passeth my power or any spiritual man for to do it For divers saith openly in my Diocess that the Kinges grace wold that they shold have the said arroneous books and so maintaineth themselves of the King Wherupon I desired my L. Abbot of Hyde to show this
sins or that the veray bare observation of theym in it self is a holines before God Although they be remembrances of many holy things or a disposition unto goodness And evyn so do the lawes of your G's realm dispose men unto justice unto peace and other true and perfect holines Wherfore I did conclude for a general rule that the people ought to observe theym as they do the laws of your G's realm and with no more opinion of holines or remission of sin then the other common Laws of your G's realm Though my two Sermons were long yet I have written briefly unto your Highness the sum of theym both And I was informed by sundry reports that the people were glad that they heard so much as they did until such time as the Prior of the black frears at Canterbury preached a sermon as it was thought and reported clean contrary unto al the three things which I had preached before For as touching the first part which I had preached against the erroneous doctrin of the Bp. of R. his power which error was that by God's Law he should be Gods Vicar here in earth the Prior would not name the Bp. of R. but under color spake generally That the Church of Christ never erred And as touching the second part where I spake of the Vices of the Bishops of R. And there to the Prior said that he would not sclawnder the Bishops of Rome And he said openly to me in a good Audience that he knew no vices by none of the Bishops of Rome And he said also openly that I preached uncharitably whan I said that these many years I had daily prayed unto God that I might see the power of Rome destroyed and that I thanked God that I had now seen it in this realm And yet in my sermon I declared the cause wherfore I so prayed For I said that I perceived the See of Rome work so many things contrary to Gods honor and the wealth of this realm and I saw no hope of amendment so long as that See reigned over us And for this cause onely I had prayed unto God continually that we might be separated from that See and for no private malice or displesure that I had either to the Bp. or See of Rome But this seemed an uncharitable prayer to the Prior that the power of Rome should be destroyed And as for the third part where I preached against the Laws of the Bp. of Rome that they ought not to be taken as Gods Lawes nor to be esteemed so highly as he would have them the Prior craftily leaving out the name of the Bp. of Rome preached that the Lawes of the Church be equal with Gods lawes These things he preached as it is proved both by sufficient witnes and also by his own confession I leave the judgment hereof unto your G. and to your Councel whether this were a defence of the Bp. of Rome or not And I onely according to my bounden duty have reported the truth of the Fact But in mine opinion if he had spoken nothing else yet whosoever saith that the Church never erred maintaineth the Bp. of Rome his power For if that were not erroneous that was taught of his power That he is Christs Vicar in earth and by Gods law Head of al the World spiritual and temporal and that al people must believe that De necessitate Salutis and that whosoever doth any thing against the See of Rome is an heretick and that he hath authority also in Purgatory with such other many false things which were taught in times past to be Articles of our Faith if these things were not erroneous yea and errors in the Faith then must nedis your G's Laws be erroneous that pronounce the Bp. of Rome to be of no more power by Gods Law than other Bishops and theym to be Traitors that defend the contrary This is certain that whosoever saith that the Church never erred must either deny that the church ever taught any such errors of the Bp. of Rome his power and then they speak against that which al the world knoweth and al books written of that matter these three or four hundred years do testifie or else they must say that the said errors be none errors but truths And then it is both treason and heresy At my first Examination of him which was before Christmas he said that he preached not against me nor that I had preached any thing amiss But now he saith that I preached amiss in very many things and that he purposely preached against me And this he reporteth openly By which words I am marvellously sclawndered in these parts And for this cause I beseech your G. that I may not have the judgment of the cause for so moch as he taketh me for a party but that your G. would commit the hearing therof unto my L. Privy Seal or else to associate unto me some other persons at your G's plesure that we may hear the case joyntly together If this man who hath so highly offended your G. and preached against me openly being Ordinary and Metropolitane of this Province and that in soch matters as concerne the misliving and the laws of the Bp. of Rome and that also within mine own church if he I say be not looked upon I leave unto your G's prudence to expend what example this may be unto others with like colour to maintain the Bp. of Rome his authority and also of what estimation I shal be reputed hereafter and what credence shal be given unto my preaching whatsoever I shal say hereafter I beseech your G. to pardon me of my long and tedious writing For I could not otherwise set the matter forth plaine And I most heartily thank your G. for the Stag which your G. sent unto me from Wyndsor Forest. Which if your G. knew for how many causes it was welcome unto me and how many ways it did me service I am sure you would think it moch the better bestowed Thus our Lord have you Highness alwayes in his preservation and governance From Ford the xxvj day of August Your Graces most humble Chaplain and bedisman T. Cantuarien NUM XIV The Archbishop to Mr. Secretary Crumwel concerning his styling himself Primate of al England RIght worshipful in my most harty wise I commend me unto you Most hartily thanking you for that you have signified unto me by my Chaplain Mr. Champion the complaint of the Bp. of Winchester unto the Kings Highnes in two things concerning my Visitation The one is that in my style I am written Totius Angliae Primas to the derogation and prejudice of the Kings high power and authority being Supreme Head of the Church The other is that his Dioces not past five years agone was visited by my Predecessor and must from henceforth pay the tenth part of the Spiritualties according to the Act granted in the last Sessions of Parlament Wherfore he thinketh that his
do any thing offend the said Juges affection By reason that the said Proctors be removeable from their Proctors offices at the said Juges plesure and the same made so beneficial unto theym by reason of the said Statute Than whan the said Proctors shal be in such fear of the said Juges to speak in matier of Instance where the Juge doth bear but a light affection to another man moch more wil they be so in cases of office where the Juge is party himself and hath his own matier in hand And no mervail if they dare not speak in such For it hath not been seldome seen and heard there that it hath been spoken unto such Proctors as hath spoken any thing constantly or freely in their Clients causes by the Juges aforesaid Non es amicus Curiae and that they were threatned of expulsion from their Offices and put to silence Yet no law forbiddeth the contrary but that every man shuld have his lawful defence yea against the Juge himself But if there were many Proctors in the said Courts the Juges could not so lightly keep them al in such subjection and fear of theym Nor than the said Proctors shuld not have so great cause to fear theym so moche seeing their offices shuld not be so beneficial unto theym than And less shuld they yet fear to purpose their Clients right duely if it were ordeined that the same Proctors shuld not be removeable from their Offices at the said Juges plesure as heretofore they were and now are but only for certain great offences proved afore indifferent Juges to be committed by theym after their admission And by reason that the said Proctors be so abandonned unto the said Juges where men had most need of trusty Councillors there they be most destitute of the same as when the Juge is not indifferent For the partiality of a Juge is more to be feared than the manifest malice of an Adversary For the tone hurteth privily and is able to execute his malice and the tother doth apertly al that he goeth about And a man may provide for the avoiding of the intent And he is not so able to execute his purpose as the tother is And though partiality of any Juge is to be greatly feared yet most of al in the Courts spiritual where al depends upon the Juges hands and that one man's commonly For which partiality the remedy of appeal was first invented Which remedy like as it was at the first most wholesomely provided for the avoyding of the iniquity of partial Juges so it is now most wickedly abused for the maintenance of evil doers in their wrongful causes and avoyding of due execution of justice by reason that they be infinite especially after the Canon law For by Civil there is but appellation permitted and that not without penalty on him that shal than appeal without cause and that is more reasonable For like as it is dangerous to abide one mans jugement so it is unreasonable that a man should abide the jugements of never so many And therfore it were very expedient that the same Appeals were restrained somewhat For of theym it is chiefly long that matiers be in maner infinite in the said Courts And that may be the better done by reason that there be two Legates within this Royalm Which were so appoynted because that they might determine al matiers spiritual within this Royalm without moche recourse to Rome being so far from this Country To the foresaid inconveniences may come also through the same statute this abuse following that is to wit if there be a mightier or a richer man that do sue a poorer man in the said Courts the richer man may the sooner by reason that there be so few Proctors retain the most part and the best learned of theym And the other Proctors by reason that they shal be than so wealthy through their great occupying which they shal have whan they be so few wil rather set more by the same great mens favor than the poor mans fee. And therfore wil ether refuse to be retained of the poor mans party or whan they be retained they wil be slack in doing their duty for fear of displeasing the same great men Where if there were many Proctors their Offices would not be excessive gainful but that they set as moche by their fees as by any mans plesure lightly Also the said Statute is a great discourage to young men to leave their Studies in the Law For by the same the reward of Study is taken away and possest by a few And the fewer that be promoted for their Learning the fewer wil study to attain the same And to this it may be occasion that the said Proctors be not so wel learned nor so diligent whan they are so few as they would be if they were many For whan there is choise enough of theym they that are best learned and most diligent shal be alwayes most resorted And than shal they study every man to excel other in learning and diligence whan they se such chiefly resorted unto And so no man wil labour than to be a Proctor unles he be wel learned seeing that learned men shuld only have al the most resort And they that be unlearned wil away and provide theym Livings elsewhere whan they see theymself nothing frequented with causes Furthermore the said Statute is plain contrary to their own law of Civil and Canon For by the same it is permitted for every man to be Proctor for other but only a few which are especially and justly excepted by the same as a Woman a child a madd man and such other And by the said statute it is prohibited that no man shal procure in the said Court for other but only a few that are especially admitted therto and that within a precise and incompetent nombre The said Law doth except and repel very few and that of theym that are not meet to procure and the said statute doth yet admit fewer and that of theym that are sufficiently qualified to procure So that White and Black can be no more contrary together than the said Law and Statute be each to other And though any man would rather prefer the said Law before the said Statute if he did but only consider how that the Law is made so long ago by the concord and discrete opinion of so many great and wise Clerks and holy men and afterward approved by continual usage of divers countries and long succession of time and experiently known to be wholsomely ordeined for the common wele And of the tother side how that the said Statute is but lately made by the procurement of a few private persons for their singular advantage approved by no tract of time to be profitable for the Common wele but experiently known to be contrary Yet beside that if al that were set apart the Law is grounded upon better reason then the said Statute is For seeing
away and give place unto Romish Decrees And then by your own Article you hold and condemn your selves to be Heretics How be you bewitched by these false Papists Why do you suffer them thus to abuse you by their subtilty to make you condemn your selves of Heresy Why do you not send them unto the Kings Majesty like errant Traitors as indeed they be Saying unto him Most mighty Prince and most drad Soveraign Lord we present here unto you most heinous Traitors against your Majesty and realm and greatest Dissemblers and falsest Deceivers of us your Simple and ignorant people and yet in our own hearts your true and faithful Subjects We have erred We have grievously offended your Majesty but by ignorance being so seduced and provoked by the crafty persuasions of these most hainous Traitors that we wist not what we did But pardon us Soveraign Lord have pity upon our Simplicity and ignorance and these abominable Traitors punish according to their deservings Have mercy most merciful Prince of us your poor flock which were ignorantly led out of the way and strike with the Swords those malicious guides that purposely would have led us to our utter destruction If you did thus then would you do the parts of true faithful and loyal Subjects and should declare to the world that al that you have hitherto done was done by error and ignorance And I would nothing doubt of the Kings Majestie his Clemency and Mercy towards you But yet to the intent that you may further know how unreasonable your first Article is I wil yet reherse another sort of the holy Lawes and Decrees One is That no Lay man may have a Benefice to farm Another is That none of the Clergy may give any thing to the relief of the commonweal and necessity of their own realm without the consent of the Bp. of Rome Another is That no Lay man may meddle with election or any other thing that pertaineth unto any of the Clergy Another is That none of the Clergy ought to give any oath of fidelity to their Princes except they have temporal lands of them Another is That Princes ought to obey the Bps and the Decrees of the Church and to submit their Heads unto their Bps and not to be judges over the Bps. Another is Whosoever offendeth the Liberties of the Church or doth break any Interdiction that cometh from Rome or conspireth against the Person or Estate of the Bp. or See of Rome or by any maner offendeth disobeyeth or rebelleth against the same Bp. or See or that killeth a Priest or offendeth personally against a Bp. or other Prelate or invadeth spoileth withholdeth or wasteth Lands belonging to the Church of Rome or to any other Church immediately subject unto Rome or whosoever invadeth any Pilgrims that go to Rome or any Suitors to the Court of Rome or that let the devolution of causes unto that Court or that put any new charges or impositions real or personal upon a Church or ecclesiastical person and generally All others that offend in the cases contained in the Bul which is usually published by the Bps. of Rome upon Maunday thursday Al these can be assoiled by no Priest Bp Archbp nor by none other but only by the Bp. of Rome or by his express Licence These with an infinite number of like sort be the godly and holy Decrees which you long so sore for and so much desire Now would I know whether you think that these decrees were made for the common wealth of al realmes or only for the private weal of the Bp. of Rome and of his Bps. and Clergy And whether you like and long for these laws or now at the hearing of them your longing is done If you like them Wel for my part I would you had them practised among you for a while so that the rest of the Realm were not troubled neither with you nor with your Decrees unles you repented your selves of your foolish demands I think within a year you would kneel on your knees to the Kings Majestie desiring him to take from your necks the yokes and halters which you had made for your selves But to conclude the sum of the first Article in few words It is nothing else but a clear subversion of the whole State and Lawes of this realm and to make this Realm to be whole governed by Romish Lawes and to crown the Idol and Antichrist of Rome king of this realm and to make our most undoubted and natural King his vile Subject and slave Oh! what was in your minds to ask such a thing and so presumptuously to say that you wil have it I trust there be not in you so much malice and devilishness as the Article containeth but that you were craftily subornate by subtil Papists to ask and demand you wist not what If you had asked that the Word of God might be duly observed and kept every where within this Realm And whosoever would gainsay Gods word to be holden as a Heretic If you had declared your selves to be godly men al that be godly would have commended and furthered your requests But forasmuch as you ask Romish Canons and Decrees to be observed and kept here in England and whosoever shal againsay them to be holdon as hereticks there is neither godly nor truly English man that will allow you or consent to your Articles But clean contrary to your Articles a great number of godly persons within this realm for the very love that they have to God that his Name may be glorified above al things be daily humble Suitors to the Kings Majesty that he following the steps of his Father wil study and travail to weed out of this his Realm al Popish Decrees Lawes and Canons and whatsoever else is contrary to Gods word and that the speakers against Gods word may be taken as they be indeed for Heretics And is any of you so far from reason that he thinketh the Kings Majesty ought to hearken to you that by force and stubbornness say you wil have Romish Laws and Decrees kept in this realm and to turn his ears from them that with al humility be suitors for Gods Word But now wil I come to your other Articles wherein I wil be brief forasmuch as in the first I have been long and tedious II. Your second Article is this WEE wil have the Law of our Soveraign Lord K. Henry VIII concerning the six Articles to be used again as in his time they were Letting pas your rude stile nothing becoming Subjects to say You wil have First I examine you of the cause of your wilful wil wherefore you wil have these six Articles which never were laws in no region but this nor in this realm also until the 31 st year of King Henry VIII And in some things so enforced by the evil Counsil of certain Papists against the truth and common judgment both of Divines and Lawyers that if the Kings Majesty himself
his own making and by them promised remission of sins and salvation that he might be set up and honored for a Savior equal to Christ. And so to be esteemed above al creatures and to set in the Temple of God that is in the Church of Christ as he were God And to bring this to pas he hath horribly abused holy Scriptures altering them to his purpose in the sted of Christs most holy bloud putting in his holy Water As it appeareth evidently in this Sentence of S. Paul written in the ninth Chap. of the Hebrewes If the bloud of Oxen and Goats saith S. Paul and the ashes of a yong Cow purified the unclean as touching the purifying of the flesh how much more the bloud of Christ which through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God shal purge your consciences from dead works for to serve the Living God And for this cause he is the Mediator of the New covenant Consider wel this sentence of Paul and you shal find two purifyings one of the body and another of the Soul or Conscience You shal find also two Mediators One was the Priest of Moses law and the other is Christ. The Priests of the old Law with the bloud of Oxen and Goats and other their Sacrifices purged only the bodies of them that were defiled but the Soul or Conscience they could not help But our Savior Christ by his own bloud purged both body anâ— soul. And for that cause he and none other is the Mediator of the New Covenant But the Bp. of Rome to make himself also a Mediator with Christ hath taken upon him to purify the soul and conscience with holy water holy salt and other his holy creatures of his own devising to the intolerable injury of Christs blood which only hâ—th the effect And to bring this to pass hee hath most shamefully changed the words of the Scripture and wrested them to his purpose Some words putting out and only in the sted of Christs bloud putting in his own holy water and salt For wheras S. Paul if the blood of Oxen and Goats and the ashes of a Cow purified the unclean as touching the purifying of the flesh here the Bp. of Rome leaveth out these words As touching the purifying of the flesh And where S. Paul extolling the effect of Christs bloud in comparison of the bloud of Oxen and Goats saith How much more the bloud of Christ which through the eternal spirit offered himself being without spot unto God shal purge your consciences Here the Bp. of Rome extolling his water and salt puts out Christs bloud and in the place thereof puts his holy water and salt saying How much more water which is sprinkled with salt and hallowed with godly prayers shal sanctify and purify the people Oh! intolerable blasphemy against the most precious bloud of Christ Oh! shameles audacity and boldnes so to corrupt and pervert Gods holy word If he by his holy water presume to purify our souls as Christ did by his bloud what is that else but to make himself equal and another Mediator with Christ And what is it to Tread under foot the Son of God and to make the bloud of the N. Testament wherby he was Sanctified like other common things and to dishonor the spirit of grace if this be not And yet not contented with this blaspheming the bloud of Christ he preferreth his holy creatures far above the bloud of Christ promising by them many benefits which by the bloud of Christ be not promised For in the same place he promiseth by his holy ceremonies to take away from us dearth and scarcity of al worldly things and to multiply and encrease us with the same Also to defend us from the assaults of the Devil and al his deceits and to give us health both of body and soul. But al men se him so shamefully to ly in these worldly things that no man that wise is wil trust him in the rest Nor no man that is godly wil desire such things to remain stil which so much have deceived simple people and dishonored God and been contumelious to the bloud of Christ. But now to your Images which you say you wil have set up again in every Church What moved you to require this Article but only Ignorance For if you had known the Laws of God and the use of godly religion as wel before the Incarnation of Christ as four or five hundred years next after and by whom Images were at first brought into Christs church and how much Idolatry was every where committed by the means of the same it could not have been that ever you would have desired this Article except you had more affection to Idolatry then to true religion For Almighty God among the ten Commandments rehearsed this for the Second as one of the chief Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image nor the likenes of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath nor in the water under the earth Thou shalt not bow to them nor worship them This Commandment was diligently kept in the old Testament so long as the people pleased God For in their Tabernacle was not one image less nor more that the people might se. Although upon the Propitiatory were two Cherubins of gold by the Commandment of God And that was in such a place as the people never came near nor saw But when the people forgetting this Commandment began to make images and to set them up in the place of Adoration by and by they provoked Gods indignation against them and were grievously punished therfore The Church of Christ likewise in the N. Testament for the space of four or five hundred years after Christ's Ascension utterly refused to have Images in the Church a place of Adoration As it may plainly appear by al the old antient Authors that lived and wrot in that time In so much that above four hundred years after Christ when some Superstitious and ignorant people in some places began to bring painted images not into the Church but to the Church doores the great Clerk Epiphanius Bp. of Cyprus finding such a painted Image of Christ or some other Saint hanging at the Church door in a Town called Anablatha he cutt it in pieces saying that it was against the authority of scripture that in the Church of Christ should hang the Image of a man And the same Epiphanius wrot unto the Bp. of Ierusalem that he should command the Priests that in no wise they shou'd suffer such Images to be hanged in the church of Christ which were contrary to our religion But peradventure you wil mervail and ask me the question how it was brought to pas that of late years al Churches were so ful of Images and so much offering and pilgrimages done unto them if it were against the Commandment of God against the usage of al godly people in the O. Testament and also against the custom
hear of the abolishing especially of that law that gave that title of the Supremacy of the Church in the Realm to the Crown Suspecting that to be an introduction of the Popes authority into the Realm Which they cannot gladly hear of And for this cause cannot gladly hear of my Legation in the Popes Name Wherupon her G. in the same letters doth exhort me to stay my voyage until a more opportune time And asketh my counsil in case the lower House make resistance in the renouncing of the title of Supremacy what her G. were best to do and what course she had best to take One other poynt is that her G. desireth in the same letter to be certified by me how it came to pass that a Commission given by her to Mr. Francisco Commendone in secret was published in the Consistory as her Graces Ambassador resident in Venice doth certify her These be the two points wherin her G. requireth my answer And for to obey her demand which to me is a Commandment I do send you not only to present my letters but also my mouth and with these present Instructions for more satisfaction of her G. in al points As touching the first point which is of most weight and so great touching the honor and wealth of her G. both spiritual and temporal as none can be more ye shal shew her G. that my first advise and counsil shal be to obtain of God by prayer that which I pray him to give me writing this Which is to have Spiritum Consilij Fortitudinis And this her G. must now pray for that as in the attaining the Crown his high providence shewed by manifest tokens to have given her these two graces so in the maintaining therof he wil confirm these two gifts in her mind Her Highnes knowes if she had relented at that time for any peril when that both mans counsil and force were against her she had lost So if she for any fear do relent and do not renounce the title of Supremacy which took the name of Princess and Right heire from her she cannot maintain that she hath gotten already by the spirit of Council and Fortitude So that my first counsil is this that obtaining by prayer these two gifts which her G. had at that time to shew her self no less ardent in the leaving of the title of Supremity for to maintain her right then the King her father was in the acquisition therof to the privation of her right Which so much more she ought to do and be more fervent in this then her Father was in that Because that was done against al law both of God and man and this that her Majesty doth now shewing her self most fervent herein doth fulfil both Gods law and mans And that is her very duty if she should loose both state and life withal As she hath known she ought to do by the example of the best men of her realm Which for this cause resisting the Kings unlawful lawes lost both And now the goodnes of God putting no such hard conditions to her G. nor laying afore her eyes only Praemia futura with loss of temporal as he did to those men but praemia coelestia with terrena joyned together That serving to the honor of God which is in this poynt to render the title of Supremacy of the church in earth to whom God hath given it she doth establish her own Crown withal If now she should relent herein for any fear of men being brought to that state that other men should rather fear her then she them especially in so good a cause this afore God and men were most perpetually to be blamed Wherfore what my Counsil is herein on this maner now rehersed you may inform her Highnes Now to come to the execution of the thing After her G. is determined to have it done casting away al fear the same stondeth to have it put forth and causing it to pass by the Parlament this is another council necessarily to be pondered Consisting the whole after my opinion in the proponement of the person that hath to put forth the same that with les difficulty and more favour it may pass Here ye may say that I much pondering the same and considering that it must be a person of Authority that should propone the same if it should take effect When I look in my mind upon al them I know of the Lords both Spiritual and Temporal and persons of the Lower House that might have authority I do see none but that other he hath defended the contrary cause by his Sentence and writing as the Spiritual men have done which taketh away a great part of authority to persuade others when men heareth them accepting that matter that aforetime they have oppugned Or else to speak of the Temporal Lords or others being al intangled with private profit enjoying goods of the Church by rejecting the authority of the same they cannot speak with that freenes of spirit as such a matter requireth Wherfore yee may conclude with her G. mine opinion herein that after long consideration hereof I see no person but one that is able with authority and also favour to propone this matter And that person is her G. her self God having brought it to her hand alone She being in this matter and al other immaculate and without blot ordered of God to defend his cause and her own withal And this ye may say the Counsil that it pleased God to put in my mind is that her G. do in this case as I remember the Emperor did in his own case passing by Rome wheras his mind was to justify his quarrel touching the war betwixt him and the French king afore the Pope and the Cardinals When doubting if onye other person should propose the same it might have contradiction of that party that did favor France he determined without any conference either with his Councel or others to put forth the matter himself And so when nother the Pope nor no other looked for any such thing his Holines and the Cardinals being now congregate he entred in among them in the Consistory and made a long Oration in justifying his cause and obtained that he would without any resistance Underneath this maner my poor advise should be that her Majesty should personally come into the Parlament and put forth the same her self and I dare be bold to say what for her authority and the justnes and the equity of the cause it self she shal have no contradiction And if need were also to shew her self to the Lower house the thing it self so neer toucheth her wealth both godly and temporally that it would be taken rather cum applausu then otherwise Further and jointly with this it shal be necessary her highnes make mention of the Popes Legate in my person to be admitted and sent for Wherin her G. hath this first to entreat that the law of my banishment may be abolished and
I restored to name and bloud And herein her G. doth know what extreme injustice hath been done to me and al our house And touching my person what ever was done that could be layd against me why I should be ashamed which never thought nor did in that cause I was banished for but that wherby I deserved rather great reward then any pain being so given with heart and mind to the Kings honor and wealth both of him and his realm that with no reward that was offered me great the King himself could not persuade me to do or sentence any thing against his honor and the wealth of the realm and to his damnation Here is al the cause why I suffered banishment with so great loss of those kinsfolks that were dearer to me then my life And this being done by consent of the Parlament though I doubt not against their mind the Parlament is bound afore God and man to revoke me again and especially now coming with extraordinary Commission that bringeth the establishment of your Graces Crown to the comfort of the whole realm both temporally and spiritually And this her G. may boldly say of al the time of my exile wherin God hath given me honor more then I did require or would have had if it had layn in my own choise and goods sufficient to maintain my state if ever it should be found that for any respect of persons for ambition pleasure or lucre I swarved from that I judged the honor of God and in matters of my Country from the wealth therof I am content not only to be excepted at this time but perpetually to be banished But if they prove al the contrary and that with the King your Father not only as a faithful subject but with that love also that no servant could shew to his master more nor son to his father I shewed ever to exteame more his honor and wealth then mine own goods or Country and never procured other then the wealth of the same then let them believe now that I never would come unto them after so many years absence your G. bearing the crown with other Commission than that I know surely should be to the honor comfort and wealth of your G. and the whole Country And so touching this point of my counsil that her G. requireth of me here ye have explicated how the whole matter wherin my counsil is required may be concluded For otherwise at this time I se not what might be taken nor can imagine no other so good as this way Which me seemeth God hath ordered should be taken and preferred above al other After this ye shal shew her G. if this way be not followed or deferred what I most fear And this is first that the Popes Holines being already persuaded to graunt to the stay of my journey contrary to his first Commission when her G. shewed more fervency to receive the obedience of the Church that the next Commission I shal have shal be to return back into Italy again And the cause why I fear this is that the Pope shal think by offering to her G. and the Realm al those graces that do pertain to the reconciliation of both to the church when he seeth it is not accepted with that promptnes it is offered he shal think that both afore God and man he hath satisfied al that could be required of him touching the demonstration of his paternal affection to her G. and the realm In the which the College of Cardinals peradventure wil judge that his Sanctity hath been over much bountiful especially when they hear of this my staying being made without their consent Which they wil ever take for a great indignity hearing no greater nor more urgent cause therof then hitherto hath been shewed and knowing how her G. cannot maintain her Right nether afore God nor man without having recourse to his Holines and to the See Apostolic and of whose Authority and Dispensation the whole right of her cause doth depend as some of them then would have had his Holines at the beginning not to have sent his Legate until he had been required and much more now after he hath sent and he not accepted they wil al be of opinion that he shal be revoked And then what peril both her G. and the whole realm standeth in by the reason of the Schism yet remaining it is manifest of it self And yet this is not al my fear of my revocation but that which may follow that I fear more Which is this that wheras now if I had been accepted with that promptnes and sincere affect as I was sent of the Popes Holines and that I brought with me my Person I trust should have brought more comfort to her Highnes and the rest of the Country then any stranger as the Popes Holines thought when he made me Legate so now on the contrary for the self same circumstances and causes that pertain to my Person not being accepted it shal more aggravate the cause at all times that the Realm hereafter should require to be absolved of the Schism and al other that would seek to prevail against her Graces title by the reason of the Schism for the self cause that I was not accepted returning again to Rome would take this for a great proof of the obstinate enduring in the same which al divine lawes doth most condemn So that my Person I desiring nothing more then to bring comfort to her and the realm not accepted shal be cause of more discomfort which as I say God of his mercy forbid Expounded under this maner my fear which stondeth in my revocation not for my self but for the domage that may come to her Majesty and the realm therby the same being very likely if my stay be deferred ony longer space knowing that his Holines and the College wil not suffer such indignity then you may declare withal the remedies that I thought best to be used at this time to avoyd this inconveniency And herein you may shew how the first Remedy is that the Pope and the College of Cardinals be wel persuaded that my stay here is but for a smal time and for to bring a more sure conclusion and to make the way more plain as I have caused the Popes Holines to be informed by a servant of mine sent by post shewing the tenor of the bil her G. wrote Herrye my servant Wherin was conteined that her Highnes shortly trusted that the matters of the Parlament should have that conclusion that I most desired And upon this hope that messenger had to shew his Holines that I had sent my stuf afore towards Flaunders and now also for confirmation of that hope I have sent a part of my company afore to tarry me there So that this you may say is the first remedy I can find to keep the Pope and the College in hope of a brave and good resolution One other chief Remedy is because I
know nothing can pass by the Parlament more to the establishment of her Highnes State both afore God and man then the sure establishing of these two And for this cause whatsoever lacketh to the establishing therof me seemeth I am bound to utter plainly to her G. and truly to say what doth not satisfy me in those Acts my whole satisfaction depending of the fruit that may redound to her G. and the realm when they shal be perfectly concluded And therfore herein you shal not let pass to enform her G. pleasing the same to give you benign audience as wel wherin they were not to my utter satisfaction as also wherin they satisfied me and brought me some comfort And first of al how the former Act of the ratifying of the Matrimony seemed unto me much defectuous in that the Parlament taking for chief grouâ—d the Wisdome and Goodnes of the Parents of both parties in making the Matrimony doth not follow that wisdome in the conclusion and establishing of the same Their wisdome in making it was that they thought not sufficient to conclude the Matrimony notwithstanding the consent of the parties unles by the Popes dispensation and authority of the See Apostolic the impediments of conjunction named in the lawes of the Church were taken away and it so made legitimate And hereof the Act of Parlament that would justify the same with derogation of another Act made to the condemnation of that Matrimony maketh no mention Which me seemeth as great a defect as if one should take a cause to defend which hath divers causes al concurrent to one effect wherof the one dependeth upon the other and one being principal of al the other and would in defence therof name the other causes and leave out the principal For so it is in the case of the Matrimony the consent of the parties and parents depended upon the Dispensation of the church and the See of Rome Without the which the wisdom of the Parents did not think it could be wel justified as the effect did shew in demanding the same and this is that which now is left out in the justification that the Parents have made alledging the wisdome of the two Parents the Kings of England and of Spain And if it be here said as I understand some do say that the Dispensation was asked of those Princes not because it was so necessary that the marriage could not be justified without that but as they say ad majorem cautelam how this answer cannot stand to that effect I have so sufficiently informed you that you of your self I doubt not without further declaration by writing can expound the same Therfore leaving that to your memory and capacity to fly multiplication oâ— writing this only I wil put you in remembrance of that if the Dispensation of the Pope in that matter was asked of those two Princes ad majorem cautelam which was to stop al mens mouths making pretence of justice that might have been brought forth or objected against the Matrimony unles this Dispensation had been obtained at the least for this cause in this Act should also have been made mention of the Dispensation following the wisdome of those Princes ad majorem cautelam being now more fear of pretenced justice against the Matrimony as the effect hath and doth shew then ever could be imagined by the wit of those Princes when they obtained first the Dispensation As touching the other Act of the Confirmation of the Sacraments ye shal shew also wherin it seems to me defective Which is that wheras the ground of the making therof as the Act doth express is taken to redress the temerity of them who being affected to nuelty of opinion did other take them away or abuse the administration of them against the antient and laudable custom of the Catholick church This being a very necessary and pious cause to make that Act in the prosecuting and concluding of the same I find this great defect that never being approbate by the Church that those persons which remain in Schisma should have the right use of the Sacraments but rather to such is interdict the use of them This Act maketh the gate open to them that be not yet entred into the Unity of the Church to the use of the Sacraments declaring it self how they should be mâ—nistred with relation to the time and year of that King and nameing him that is known to be the chief author of the Schism What defect this is it seemeth manifest of it self This shewed wherin both these Acts were defectuous and therby not bringing me ful comfort ye shal then expound wherin at the reading of them I took some comfort Which was that the conclusion of both was passed graunted and inacted by the Parlament So that touching the effect there could be no difficulty hereafter in the Parlament the same being now bound to the approving and observance of their own Act. And wherin they were defectuous this ought to be supplyed by the Princes Authority that is to say by her G.'s authority as right Queen To whom it appertaineth as chief head of the Parlament and of the whole realm withal in al Acts that the Parlament doth determe both to interpret that that is obscure and to supply and make perfect that which is defectuous as wel in the time of the Parlâ—ment as when it is dissolved So that now these both Acts being past by the Parlament they are brought to her G.'s hand to interpret and supply as it shal be judged by her G.'s wisdom how they may best take effect And to do the same other out of the time of Parlament or in another Parlament binding them by their own decre ratifying the mariage and the use of the Sacraments according to the form of the Catholic church to admit the authority of the See of Rome Which not admitted nother the one Act nor the other can take effect And admitting and establishing of the same both those Acts by this one reason wherin is comprized the reduction of the realm to the unity of the Church shal be established and made perfect For conclusion of al this ye shal inform her G. that as I consider daily the wonderful goodnes of God to her Highnes with al paternal care of her soul person and estate and his so manifest protection every day and by so many ways calling her G. to establish this unity of the Church in the realm wherof the breaking hath been cause of so great misery in the realm both spiritual and temporal with travail temporal of her M. and utter jeopardy of loosing her State So also I do consider what wayes the enemy of mankind Satan Qui expetivit cribrare â—cclesiam tanquam triticum hath used and continually usâ—th to let that her G. cannot put in execution that wherunto God continually doth cal her I dare be bold to say in this particular case that that the Apostle saith generally speaking of Satans